It's not clear who received all that stock, as SEC disclosures aren't required, but the two most prominent Beats execs that Apple got as part of the deal were Iovine and Dr. Dre, the co-founders (and substantial equity owners) of Beats. Iovine's ties to Apple dated back to 2003 when the tech company introduced the iPod and iTunes. However, Bloomberg reports that Iovine and Cue did not always see eye-to-eye.

An Apple Music subscription, like Spotify, costs $9.99 per month and plays ad-free music. Since then, Apple Music has grown dramatically, acquiring 30 million paid subscribers, second in the world behind streaming powerhouse Spotify, who yesterday announced hitting 70 million subscribers.

Iovine's plans at this point are unconfirmed. Experiments like Carpool Karaoke have not made a significant impact on the market, though Iovine's efforts to push curated music and other perks are laudable to music obsessives. He worked with top artists such as John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and more. He said the impetus for Apple Music came when he thought of "girls... sitting around talking about boys". But when asked what he planned to do after Apple Music, Iovine told Billboard in a September interview that he was focused for the time being on bringing music streaming up to speed.

Comments

Latest Posts

USA targets 10 countries over religious freedom violations
Punishment ranges from life in prison to the death sentence for a range of charges, including "defiling the Prophet Muhammad". Advocates of religious freedom applauded the list, but said that several additional countries should have been added.

Salah could make it a hat-trick of awards
The bigwigs of African football will come together in Accra, Ghana on Thursday to crown the best African footballer of 2017, and there can be no other victor than the Egyptian, Mohammed Salah .

USA suspends security assistance to Pakistan
The US has said it is suspending security assistance to Pakistan until Islamabad takes action against the Afghan Taliban . Pakistan denies allegations but President Trump has escalated the criticism against the country since he took office.

Powerball jumps to $550M after no winning tickets sold
The Mega Millions lottery drawing is tonight and people across Southwest Ohio and the Miami Valley are lining up to buy tickets. If an estimated $418 million would take care of any extra holiday spending, get a Mega Millions ticket.

Serena Williams withdraws from Australian Open
She's decided that she isn't ready to perform at a professional level after giving birth in September. The American then took the rest of the year off before giving birth to a daughter.